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The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

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Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#41

Post by wlesieutre »

diminoten wrote: post #27
pbreit wrote: post #9

I just switched from Mac to Windows and had to move back. I cannot believe how miserable the Windows experience is. I mistakenly thought that since so much is browser-based, it's not a big deal. But literally every single little thing is slightly-to-much worse on Windows. Even stupid things like changing scroll direction, saving the 5 second preference for notifications to disappear, finding a wifi password, arrangin…

If you're changing the scroll direction, you're not moving, you're trying to recreate your MacOS experience on Windows, and it isn't surprising that didn't go well.

I used to have a Surface Pro and it had the option for changing the scroll direction. From a quick google, Microsoft has supported this since at least 2013: https://tablets.gadgethacks.com/how-to/reverse-scrolling-dir...

But it was a feature limited to their own devices, and was set via a special Trackpad Settings app that you had to download from the Windows Store, not a standard part of the OS.

Which is a pretty good example of why I don't use Windows much anymore.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#42

Post by NeedMoreTea »

I'm debating switching to Windows when my 2015 Macbook gives up unless Apple really have learned their lessons from the 2016 model.

I have two remaining major issues with Windows, which is down from the remarkably sizeable list that had me switch to Mac and OSX, which makes it easy to keep the Windows box as games only:

+ Extreme monochrome flatness. It's obtuse and hides information, like the edges of icons, encouraging misclicks, and is quite frankly pig ugly. I quite liked aero glass and the UI as Windows 7 had it. The first Windows that "looked right". If only they'd modernised and flattened that a little...

+ Abusive view of the users: Tracking and telemetry you can't easily disable. Knowing better than me when to reboot, to install, when to display ads.

There's lots of minor issues, like 3 to 5 different incarnations of every feature from menus, to dialogues, to preferences. Or Explorer usability. Or how discoverable some things are. Or the whole mess of registry and installing. Or the 40GB of ever-growing Windows sub folders. All I can live with, but ugly and tracking? Much harder to tolerate.

So as ever I'll end up with a mix, rebalanced a little. One day I'll have a lovely seamless all-something world, but it hasn't happened since the 80s when it was Amigas everywhere. :)

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#43

Post by sgjohnson »

epistasis wrote: post #11

> The list of major changes to Windows in just two years, for free, is impressive: The idea that upgrades could even be qualified with "for free" is such a foreign idea that it gives me pause.

Microsoft and “for free”

With Microsoft, “for free” actually means that you’re the product. And since Windows isn’t free, you have to pay for the privilege too.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#44

Post by dijit »

jamra wrote: post #36
pbreit wrote: post #9

I just switched from Mac to Windows and had to move back. I cannot believe how miserable the Windows experience is. I mistakenly thought that since so much is browser-based, it's not a big deal. But literally every single little thing is slightly-to-much worse on Windows. Even stupid things like changing scroll direction, saving the 5 second preference for notifications to disappear, finding a wifi password, arrangin…

There is a better terminal coming out, but I use Cmder in the meantime. Taking screenshots has a shortcut key. Alt + Shift + S. I use a screen manager called Aqua Snap. It's great. I turned off notifications. They are awful. I use Windows and OSX, but I understand how you feel. I still prefer OSX.

These are good tips, I'm not a windows user and would have never found that hotkey or aqua snap. Do you have any more tips?

It might be asking too much but perhaps you could write something up?

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#45

Post by yarg »

gjmacd wrote: post #23

"Bash on Windows is maturing quickly." -- Hold my beer. Sorry, maturing quickly isn't going to cut it if you're a hardcore developer that works off the bash command line.

I don't know the stature of Bash on Windows, but Git Bash does all that I need it to.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#46

Post by autoexec »

epistasis wrote: post #11

> The list of major changes to Windows in just two years, for free, is impressive: The idea that upgrades could even be qualified with "for free" is such a foreign idea that it gives me pause.

They were right to use the word "changes" vs "upgrades" which implies improvement. Microsoft seems intent on filling their OS with user-hostile features and turning the OS into an ad-delivery/data collection platform.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#47

Post by ElCapitanMarkla »

xiwenc wrote: post #35
neilv wrote: post #10

The writer is a journalist. For techies using Mac, there's a bigger question of whether you want to just move from Mac to GNU/Linux.

Yep, my current combo Mac + Linux; i'm super happy with them: - macbook air with OS X for holidays or house related - macbook pro with OS X for work - desktop with Ubuntu for long programming sessions - home-office headless server with Ubuntu for NAS/webapp hosting/home-automation/backups I have setup my systems to synchronise all my files through my NAS using unison. So all my project files are accessible locally on…

Unison is fantastic, it’s a shame it doesn’t appear to be actively developed anymore. Although in saying that... I don’t have any issues with it.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#48

Post by cgio »

samdixon wrote: post #29

An operating system with advertisements will never be my first choice.

That. I loved windows, was probably at some time one of the last people using windows phone, but the moment I started getting a candy crash or something icon in my start menu and could not remove it unless I did some powershell tricks and even then I had it coming back was the end for me. I still believe there’s more innovation going into windows than other os but just cannot work on a system where every time I press start I am worried I will be annoyed. On Mac currently but working mostly on a Linux vm with i3 to get used to it. A touch, gesture enabled i3 is my dream and I am working on it.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#49

Post by NeoBasilisk »

diminoten wrote: post #27
pbreit wrote: post #9

I just switched from Mac to Windows and had to move back. I cannot believe how miserable the Windows experience is. I mistakenly thought that since so much is browser-based, it's not a big deal. But literally every single little thing is slightly-to-much worse on Windows. Even stupid things like changing scroll direction, saving the 5 second preference for notifications to disappear, finding a wifi password, arrangin…

If you're changing the scroll direction, you're not moving, you're trying to recreate your MacOS experience on Windows, and it isn't surprising that didn't go well.

I was scared to ask what this was even referring to

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#50

Post by jamesu »

neilv wrote: post #10

The writer is a journalist. For techies using Mac, there's a bigger question of whether you want to just move from Mac to GNU/Linux.

Personally I'd never move my primary workhorse from a Mac to GNU/Linux. I did the reverse switch years ago, and despite checking out all the weird and wonderful new releases and distros that have made it out the door, there's always some show-stopping time wasting quirk which reminds me why I switched in the first place.

Though I'm still a huge proponent for using GNU/Linux where it shines the best: i.e. server environments.

Probably far more likely in my case would be to follow the articles suggestion and just switch to windows... perhaps even using WSL.

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